The present invention relates generally to a glide floor for merchandising and display of products, such as in a retail environment. More specifically, the invention relates to a glide floor that may be used in conjunction with a shelf or display for containers or packages.
Typical glide floors or strips are made from and/or coated with silicone and include ridges that run along the length of the glide floor. The ridges have a number of different configurations, and are adapted to support various containers that may be placed on the glide floor. However, due to the shape of prior art ridges and the material properties of silicone, the glide floors must be placed at an angle of around 10° or more from horizontal in order to enable a container to slide along the glide floor. Such positioning of the glide floor is undesirable because it wastes valuable space that could otherwise be used to display additional products. Moreover, prior art ridges have angular intersection areas that are difficult to clean, often resulting in an undesirable appearance to a potential purchaser. Furthermore, a rectangular ridge design does not effectively resist creep, which is the deformation of the material forming the glide floor. Creep is undesirable because it results in increased friction between the glide floor and a container supported by the glide floor, thus reducing the functionality of the glide floor in enabling containers to smoothly slide along the glide floor under the force of gravity.
Accordingly, it is desirable to position a glide floor at a smaller angle with respect to horizontal so as to maximize the use of space. It is also further desirable to provide a glide floor that reduces creep, which may be achieved by using a specially design rib structure in accordance with the present invention. It is also desirable to provide a glide floor that eliminates angular intersection areas in order to provide easy cleaning. Moreover, it is desirable for glide floors to be releasably attachable to one another so that a variety of shelf sizes may be formed as desired.